All the Arts, All the Time

Shakespeare's Globe returning to Southern California

July 27, 2009 | 1:48
pm

Shakespeare's Globe, the renowned London theater company, is returning to the U.S. in the fall in a tour that will make two November stops in Southern California -- at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica and at UC Santa Barbara.

The company will perform Shakespeare's "Love's Labour's Lost" using a traditional Elizabethan staging that involves elaborate costumes and a mostly bare stage. In London, the company allows certain audience members to experience its productions as "groundlings" -- standing viewers who verbally and sometimes physically react to the performers. There's no word yet if the company will replicate the groundling experience while on tour, but Culture Monster will update you as soon as we know.

The engagement at the Broad Stage will officially open Nov. 20 and run through Nov. 29. Previews run Nov. 19 and a matinee Nov. 20. Culture Monster first reported on the Globe's engagement at the Broad in April. The other tour dates for "Love's Labour's Lost" were announced this week.

Dominic Dromgoole is directing the production, with Jonathan Fensom designing the visual aspects and Claire van Kampen composing the music.

Shakespeare's Globe has performed in L.A. before, most memorably perhaps in 2003 at UCLA in a production of "Twelfth Night," starring Mark Rylance.

Keep reading for the Globe's entire U.S. itinerary...

Oct. 20-25 Power Center, UMS, Ann Arbor, Mich.

Oct. 27-31 Annenberg Center, Philadelphia, Pa.

Nov. 4-8 Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley, Calif.

Nov. 11 Mondavi Center, Davis, Calif.

Nov. 13-15 UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara

Nov. 19-29 Eli and Edythe Broad Stage, Santa Monica

Dec. 4-6 Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts, Holyoke, Mass.